The Ballad of Big Al (2000)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Don't Believe the Hype

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This was a staple of my childhood. I watched it just asmich as I did the Jurassic Park and Land Before Time films. It's not just nostalgia that's the reason I like this documentary so much, but it's just a good spinoff of Walking with Dinosaurs. It has the same style and structure as any episode of the original series would have, which is terrific. It feels like a slightly longer episode of the series, but makntains the feeling of being its own thing. Unlike the show, this follows only one specific animal throughout. While the show did this as well, it also mixed that in with presenting a lot of other creatures, which is fine, but I'm glad that this one doesn't stick to that formula. This is the Ballad of Big Al, and Big Al is the central focus throughout. The documentary also does a great job of making you feel simpathetic toward Big Al, which often does not happen since we like to depict carnivorous dinosaurs as ruthless killing machines, and not simpathetic animals. Once Big Al gets injured at the end, and dies just before the wet season returns, you really feel sad for this animal not able to make it long enough. Overall, this program is a very nice addition to the "Walking with" franchise. It's one of the programs that made me not only love dinosaurs, but made Allosaurus my personal favorite dinosaur.

Big Al Ballad is basically an extra episode of the Walking with Dinosaurs mini-series and it focuses on the life time of an Allosaur named Al, the originality in the name just kills me!! Anyway it is a great time revisiting the Late Jurassic and seen in a sense from the point of view of a predator, how was this environment. I love this documentary , because it feels like a 30 short movie with dinosaurs as the main characters and the fact that they made Al just an animal ,which it was and we still rooted for him ,is a sign of how well-made is this episode. Keep in mind that this, about 30 minutes long episode, makes you feel emotions for a creature ,which is dead for about a hundred forty five million year and there are directors today who can not achieve that with trained humans for the job! In the end just add it in your dinosaur documentary collection and show it to your kids.

The Ballad of Big Al is really the follow-up that greatly increases the class of "Walking with Dinosaurs".Big Al MUST be seen in combination with the second part of the special (The Science of Big Al). This way you at last get an idea of what clues we have on Dinosaurs and how the clues have been put together to get an idea of how the Dinosaurs might have lived.Using the clues found within the skeleton of an Allosaurus (Big Al), the team has put together something like "This is your life", Big Al. Big Al is born, grows up, hunts and dies. Although the story is (of course) only speculation, it is very interesting and put together with a lot of love. Unlike the series (Walking with Dinosaurs), the Ballad of Big Al really tells the viewer that this is only an assumption of Big Al's life while also letting the viewer in on many of the key reasons for this assumption.All in all this is a great follow-up. It's just too bad that "Walking with Dinosaurs" didn't have more of Big Al and the qualities of the follow-up.

This sequel of sorts does the original series proud, with Kenneth Branagh as narrator. As with _Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) (TV)_, the dinos are mostly CGI, with the use of puppetry for close ups.The advancement of Tim Haines' skill is obvious, with freer moving cameras, highlighted by Al's Fifth Year, in which a pack of allosaurs break up a diplodicus herd to get at a sick member. It's truly exciting, with a rousing score by Ben Bartlett, and excellent motion camerawork. The discovery of Big Al, the "star" of the show, in 1999 couldn't have come at a better time, coinciding with the debut of _Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) (TV)_ in the U.K. - a follow-up was an obvious choice, especially since Allosaurs made their presence felt in the chapter "Time of the Titans" as well as "Spirits of the Ice Forest". This also gave viewers a chance to see more of Brachiosaurus, which only made a brief cameo in the original series, as well as some dinos not seen, like Apatosaurus. Later in 2001 will see the debut of Walking with Prehistoric Creatures, and with the high video and aural quality of the Allosaurus special, it's warmly welcomed.The DVD features an excellent documentary on the discovery of Big Al, and at a retail price of $19.99, getting both Allosaurus and the documentary is a real steal.